For those with an iPad Air, Kindle Fire HDX, and Samsung Tab...

[GatorDeb]

I have an iPod Touch 5g and a Samsung S4 and I'm happy with both. Now I want a tablet. But I want a buy-once tablet which I can keep for a few years, so money is not an issue. I'd rather spend even $1000 on something I'll use constantly than $200 on something that will collect air.

Which is the best experience out of those 3? I would go with the biggest screen there is for whichever I end up buying. I want something with a big screen, portable. Going to use it for books, magazines, and calendar/appointment handling mostly but I do have a ton of apps that I use regularly... i.e. MyFitnessPal, 24 Hour Fitness apps, etc. I do have Netflix and Amazon Prime and tons of books on the Kindle but I guess that last point is moot since the Kindle app is everywhere.

I have a Kindle Paperwhite 2G, so that's my primary reader.

If you have all three and had to give up 2 of them, which one would you keep?

[ilovejedd]

iPad Air 128GB LTE.

Seriously, though, I've got a bunch of tablets (not necessarily the ones on your thread title) and the iPad is the one I reach for the most. Surprisingly, Chrome on the iPad feels like a better experience than Chrome on Android (although I'm thinking this might boil down to the difference in aspect ratio since I actually like Chrome on the 4:3 HP TouchPad).

I guess this really depends on what you're doing. Videos, etc are well suited to 16:10/16:9. For me, though, web browsing, PDF, etc are better on 4:3.

[Josieb1]

iPad, without a doubt. I have an AIR, I upgraded from a 3 which I'd had for two years. My experience of Android is a Nook HD, I know that's only a 7 inch tablet rather than the size of the AIR but everything just works seamlessly on the iPad. The apps are better quality, they are updated regularly. Your not hanging around waiting for an Android manufacturer to update the IOS or the apps when they feel like it. It's just a smoother experience.

My AIR is pretty much a laptop replacement, it's used constantly, emails, tv, web, music, you name it, it does it.

[jscarbo]

If money's no object, I agree that the iPad Air is arguably the best tablet on the market today. However, if you're willing to justify the higher price by thinking you'll use it for several years, I disagree.

As rapidly as tablet design and technology are advancing, I can't imagine that I would be satisfied with a three or four year old tablet today and expect this will be the case going forward.

For me, cost is an important consideration and I expect to upgrade whenever new features and technology justify doing so. My first tablet was a 1st generation iPad purchased in late 2010 but it was too heavy and clunky to enjoy so I replaced it with an original Kindle Fire October 2011. I sold my Fire and bought a Nexus 7 when it came out a few months later. When Barnes and Noble dropped the price for the 9" HD+ and added Google Play access earlier this year, I gave my N7 to my wife and got one. I love the larger screen and HD resolution but doubt my love affair will last more than a year or so and I'll want a newer, better model.

[Josieb1]

I agree with jscarbo, 2/3 years is what I expect. Hubby would disagree though, but then he gets my hand offs lol.

[ilovejedd]

Originally Posted by Josieb1

I agree with jscarbo, 2/3 years is what I expect. Hubby would disagree though, but then he gets my hand offs lol.

Sticking to an older iOS version helps with iPads and iPhones. New iOS versions are invariably optimized for newer hardware and often don't perform particularly well on 2 to 3-year old devices. The only sticking point is when apps are updated that require newer iOS versions. For some apps, it's perfectly fine not to be running the latest version. Some web-based apps (e.g. video streaming) however, would prevent you from viewing content if you're using an older version.

If you don't need to have the new-fangled features released every year and you don't have an issue with apps, an older iPad would work just fine. My grandmother and mother are perfectly happy with my cast-off iPad 2 and iPad 3, respectively. I expect both of them will be using those iPads until they can barely hold a charge. Heck, I have an Air but I actually don't have any complaints against performance of my iPad 4. In fact, I find the iPad 4 with iOS 6 to be much more stable than the iPad Air with iOS 7. Imho, performance starting with the iPad 4 (in terms of web page rendering, etc) is already at the point where it's fast enough that I wouldn't mind using it 4 years down the road (well, just 3 now since it was released last year). Granted, this is speaking as someone who is perfectly content with the performance of a 5-year old desktop (Core 2 Duo E8600). Tablets have been going through rapid changes because it was still fairly immature as a platform. I expect that might slow down a bit now.

[shanghaichica]

I think an ipad air would be a nice device and a good companion to the devices you already have. The galaxy tab is a nice device too, I have one myself. I also have an ipad mini and feel that the ipad has the better tablet experience. In the US the kindle fires are good due to the prime services but in the UK, for example they are quite limited in what they can do unless you root them.

[misling]

I have a Nexus 2013 (7"), Samsung Tab 3 (8") and a Kindle fire HD (7"). My husband has a Kindle fire (original) and an Ipad 3.
First, there is no reason to get the Kindle Fire family UNLESS you have prime and want to watch movies from Amazon or UNLESS you have a lot of software/music/movies that you already own from Amazon. I have owned all the Kindle Fire family up to this year, and I love the hardware and price point and (with a sideloaded launcher) you can have a good android user interface. But this year I decided not to buy another, for the following reasons.
1. I have no use for the movies (Fire's best feature), since my bandwidth is too expensive to download them more than about once a month.
2. Their software apps get updated VERY late. Anywhere from weeks to months after the i-store and google play store. I've seen as much as 8 months late. The software developers say this is because 1) developers develop for i-store first, and 2) Once Amazon receives an app from the developer, it takes weeks or months to review the app and post it to the store. Amazon is trying to incent developers to write more stuff for the Amazon store. They'd do better to upgrade their own approval process so that the apps get updated in a timely manner.
I do use a Kindle, but not a Kindle tablet. I use my Kindle ereader constantly.

I love my Samsung Tab 3. It's almost a year old now and it's the tablet I use most. The 8" screen size adds a surprising amount of real estate over the 7" models and still fits in my purse. The screen is not as high res as models that have come out later, but it is very very sharp and clear, and the colors are intense. The ALL the google play apps that I have examined, run on it (developers always suppord it because so many people have one). Updates come soon for apps. It gets OS upgrades later than my Nexus, but I don't really mind about that. I've been eyeing the Note 8, which is higher res and came out more recently, but I've decided to wait until 1st quarter next year when probably the next Tab will come out. Note has a high def stylus (Wacom) and you can write & draw on the screen with it. This is what you pay extra for, and I'm not interested in it. Though it is cool to play with in the store

Apple. Well, it's the bomb if you like Apple. My husband is VERY happy with his ipad and it's not even the latest model. Also, there are many app developers that stick to Apple, so if those apps are important to you, that's the way to go.

You didn't ask about the Nexus. It's great hardware, and bare Android. It gets OS updates at once (of course), and the price is good. For some reason it doesn't grab me as much as the Samsungs, but that's personal. In every other way it's just as good as the Samsungs and better value for what you get.

You should check out the app stores (google play and i-store) and see which one has more stuff that appeals to you. However good the hardware, it's the apps you spend time interacting with. I know that in my husband's hobby (strategy gaming), the i-store has many options that are not available for android. For the games I like best (resource based), there's tons on Android, and they're a whole lot cheaper than the i-store games. If you're not interested in gaming, the same still applies to other types of app.

[WillysJeepMan]

Originally Posted by ilovejedd

Sticking to an older iOS version helps with iPads and iPhones. New iOS versions are invariably optimized for newer hardware and often don't perform particularly well on 2 to 3-year old devices. The only sticking point is when apps are updated that require newer iOS versions. For some apps, it's perfectly fine not to be running the latest version. Some web-based apps (e.g. video streaming) however, would prevent you from viewing content if you're using an older version.

If you don't need to have the new-fangled features released every year and you don't have an issue with apps, an older iPad would work just fine. My grandmother and mother are perfectly happy with my cast-off iPad 2 and iPad 3, respectively. I expect both of them will be using those iPads until they can barely hold a charge. Heck, I have an Air but I actually don't have any complaints against performance of my iPad 4. In fact, I find the iPad 4 with iOS 6 to be much more stable than the iPad Air with iOS 7. Imho, performance starting with the iPad 4 (in terms of web page rendering, etc) is already at the point where it's fast enough that I wouldn't mind using it 4 years down the road (well, just 3 now since it was released last year). Granted, this is speaking as someone who is perfectly content with the performance of a 5-year old desktop (Core 2 Duo E8600). Tablets have been going through rapid changes because it was still fairly immature as a platform. I expect that might slow down a bit now.

I agree with much of what you've written here. My iPad 1 is still in service, dedicated to being the innerds of a vintage TV. My wife is using my 2+ yr old iPad 2 and she's quite pleased with it. I continue to be impressed with my 64GB iPad 4 running 6.1.3... out of all the tablets I own, it is by far the fastest and smoothest and gets the best battery life (12-14 hours).

Having said that, I think that Apple has "jumped the shark" with the iPad Air and iOS 7. The Air has a 64 bit processor but still has 1GB RAM. That's causing some issues along with the overall instability of iOS 7.

I can't recommend the Air at this point in time. Maybe in 3 months or so when iOS 7.1.x addresses the issues, or the Air.1 is released with a bump in RAM.

[Scarpad]

I have an iPad Air 128gb LTE, I've owned a lot of Tablets and IOS still has the best most stable apps I've tried, reading books and comics and pdf's is best on the 4:3 format and I watch a lot of older standard tv and thats great there too, I've never felt any type of limitation on the air with RAM , it's very speedy and reactive. If I was going to go for another tablet it would probably be a 8.9 inch Fire HDX

[mcrow]

I think that it really depends on if you have Amazon Prime. I love the Fire tablets.

First thing is the price. $499 for the Air and $379 for the Kindle HDX 8".

Their processors overall are pretty similar in overall performance but they have some differences in areas of strength.The A7 is better at single strand processing, the Snapdragon in the Kindle is overall more powerful. Displays are both very good, I might lean slightly toward the HDX. The Kindle is lighter, both have similar front and rear facing cameras.

I think overall the hardware is a slight edge for the Kindle.

Now, a lot of whether or not you pick the Kindle or the Air is the OS and ecosystem you like better. Personally, I'm a big fan of Amazon Prime. I watch a lot of movies on prime, read a lot of books, and do quite a bit of shopping on Amazon. So, for me prime is the deciding factor. The down side, some would say, is that they have many fewer apps than google play or itunes However, the vast majority of the most popular apps on google play can be side loaded on the kindle and most of the most popular apps on itunes are also on the Amazon App store. I would check to make sure that Amazon has your favorite apps before you buy though because it would be terrible to have a tablet that doesn't run the apps you use the most.

Also, OS choice seems to be a big factor. I know a lot of people that love iOS7 and previous versions so much anything else just seems weak. I also know a good number of people that like android and I personally like the OS3.0. It is also nice to have the Mayday button if something goes wrong, though I have had no reason to use it yet.

Like I said, the Kindle may have a slight edge in hardware and price. However, the difference isn't too noticeable that if you prefer the iTunes/iOS combo more than OS3.0/Prime combo that you wouldn't buy the Air.

[ProfCrash]

You can download apps to read watch Amazon purchased and Prime videos on the iPad. I have it for my iPad3.

The Ecosystem was why I bought the iPad a few years ago and I don't think enough has changed to get me to buy any Android based machines. The Apps for the strategy based board games that I play were not available for the Android machines 2 years ago. There are more available today but still not the same selection.

I use my iPad for game play and the internet so I cannot speak to how level the playing field is with other apps.

[mcrow]

Originally Posted by ProfCrash

You can download apps to read watch Amazon purchased and Prime videos on the iPad. I have it for my iPad3.

The Ecosystem was why I bought the iPad a few years ago and I don't think enough has changed to get me to buy any Android based machines. The Apps for the strategy based board games that I play were not available for the Android machines 2 years ago. There are more available today but still not the same selection.

I use my iPad for game play and the internet so I cannot speak to how level the playing field is with other apps.

You are right, you can use the prime content on an iPad but I don't think you get the same functionality and features you get on a Kindle. However, like I said, both ecosystems are good but have different feels and iTunes has more apps.

I think people will be happy with either devices so long as they choose the flavor they like. It's sort of like Chocolate Cake and Chocolate Ice Cream, either way you have something good.